CLIMATE CHANGE
4,000 years of civilization and climate change
The Akkadian Empire The Epic of Gilgamesh , written around 2000
BCE, tells of a great and ancient flood – but scholars instead attribute the demise of the Akkadian Empire to a sudden change in climate patterns across the region, with rapidly increasing aridity and a once-in-a-century drought.
The Roman Empire The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. A study of tree rings published in the journal Science provides evidence of climate shifts in the region between 250 CE and 550 CE – likely contributing to the fall of the empire.
Photo: BlackMac/ Adobe Stock
Mayan civilization Around 900 CE, drought and the resultant scarcity of food and water combined with overpopulation to doom this 3,000-year old civilization. Greenland’s Norse colony The “Little Ice Age” (1500–1850) had a big impact on Greenland’s settlers in the 15th century. As the climate cooled in the North Atlantic, attempts to use the sea as a source of food failed and the Norse colony was abandoned.
The Khmer Empire In the early 13th century drought and flooding damaged the kingdom’s water infrastructure. This, along with widespread tree-felling, created rain runoff. Consequently, the build-up of sediment in the canal network eventually destroyed the system.
The Industrial Revolution Since the invention of the steam engine in the 1760s and the spread of modern industrial processes across the globe, pollutant gases have had a profound warming effect on the Earth’s atmosphere.
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